2005 Chevy Corvette Z06 Testing – Hole Shot

Quality Seat Time

Having fantasized about being a race car driver since about birth, I was shocked to feel claustrophobic in the Z06. The car was a ‘caged but otherwise stock ’05 Z06 Corvette, my passenger was GM engineer Mark Stielow, and the place was GM’s Milford Proving Grounds.

Last month’s story on the HOT ROD Solstice (“American Badass,” page 92) provided all the performance numbers and some driving impressions, but I hadn’t gotten any real seat time in the car. Most of the time was spent testing, shooting the photos for the magazine, and filming the whole deal for a future episode of HOT ROD TV. My seat time was limited to a few 30-mph rolls for the cameras and a few throttle bursts, but no real hard-core driving. So GM and I arranged a trip to their proving grounds in Milford, Michigan, where the car went to be readied for Power Tour(tm), to really get a feel for what the car’s all about.

The GM Performance Division crew, led by Stielow, PR guy Phil Colley, photographer (and former HR staffer) Will Handzel, and engineer Mike Copeland, met me at the proving grounds, and the first order was getting suited up. GM’s strict safety standards meant a firesuit, a helmet, and a HANS Device had to be worn while on the road course. With all that stuff on, I climbed into the passenger side of the Z06 and buckled in, while Stielow did the same on the driver side. That’s when the world got really small and tight.

But it was Stielow driving, in a car and on a track he’d made several thousand laps on, so I felt about as safe as I could be. Once we got going the claustrophobia went away. The first few laps were to familiarize me with the track, and after Stielow scared the bejeezus out of me with two hot laps, we came in and switched places. I took it way easier, but still got a feel for both the track and the amazing Z06. It’s a really fast car.

Then we jumped in the HOT ROD Solstice. Stielow took it out first with me riding shotgun, just to show what the car would do. “I’m gonna go about 25 percent the first lap and then work it up. Is that okay?” he asked me. “Sure man, sounds good.” So it was a surprise when he began four-wheel drifting the thing at about 100 mph on lap number two. Of course, he handled the car masterfully, as I guessed he had run a hundred laps on this track in this very car. “Wow, this thing is fast. I’ve never had it on this track before,” he admitted as we started lap three. Oh crap.

Then I got my turn. Stielow was right when he described the HOT ROD Solstice as “the Z06 with 10-percent more everywhere.” I was prepared for the twitchy drive expected with a big engine in a short-wheelbase car, but the ride and handling work made this a brutally fast car that you can drive right to the edge and bring back without killing yourself. I only did that a few times before realizing it would be in the best interest of neither my career nor my finances to put the car in the trees. But I did get a chance to ride it hard, and it was good.

After that we drove the car out to Black Lake, a huge concrete pad where all manner of new-vehicle testing is done. We set up a slalom course, but the main goal was to beat the snot out of the car and get a feel for how it handles without the danger of wadding it up. It does exceptional doughnuts, by the way. The slalom demonstrated how amazingly well set-up the car is, to the point where even a publisher could drive it fast and not hurt himself. The last stop was a 3-mile-long road where I could make a few quarter-mile passes. The car was hot by then, the surface was not prepped like a dragstrip, and I only made about five passes. The best time as reported by the V-Box was an 11.0 at 131 mph, a hundredth and two mph off Stielow’s best pass as reported last month. Honestly, if we could fit some real slicks on the car, it should run way deep in the 10s. From a 40-mph roll, there’s not much on the street that will hang with this little hot rod.

Thanks to the GMPD guys for making this happen. Not just my trip, but the entire car. And special thanks to Mike Copeland for taking on the brunt of the project and making the car his. If you ever get a chance to see this thing in person, bribe whomever you gotta to get a ride in it. -Rob Kinnan